Official from the IEA: Renewables have overtaken coal as world’s biggest power source

Renewables have hit many milestones over the last few years – record installation levels, record investment, more new renewable capacity installed last year than all fossil fuels combined. But this one’s a big one: the latest issue of the International Energy Agency’s renewable market report has confirmed that there is now more renewable generating capacity installed worldwide than any other form of generation, surpassing the previous top dog, coal.

The figures are astonishing – last year, half a million solar panels were installed every day. In China, two wind turbines were installed every hour. As a result of the increased pace of installation, the IEA has sharply increased its projections of how much renewable generating capacity will be installed in the next 5 years by 13%. By 2021, the amount of generating capacity from renewables will be equivalent to the total generating capacity of all energy of the USA and the EU combined today.